Tyranny

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Tyranny
Sunday, 10 23, 2005

Q: Which of the following definitions of “tyranny” apply to the current Philippine state of affairs: (1) oppressive power; (2) a government in which absolute power is vested in a single ruler; (3) the office, authority, and administration of a tyrant; (3) a rigorous condition imposed by some outside agency or force; and (4) a tyrannical act.

A: All of the above.

This is what the Philippines is today: a tyranny ruled by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Congressman Rolex Suplico wasn’t mincing words when he called Arroyo a tyrant. He went on to say: “We should remind Arroyo that she is railing and ranting against the safeguards imposed by the Constitution, that is, the separation of powers and system of checks and balances. Arroyo is trying to crush the principle of the separation of powers of the government, which was designed to prevent the concentration of the three powers of government in the hands of one man or branch of the government … to prevent tyranny. This is exactly what Arroyo wants to happen, to be a tyrant.”

Suplico should know whereof he speaks. He has been a victim and object of the oppression of Arroyo, he being one of the most vocal critics of her tyrannical rule.

Imagine on one side a co-opted military and police; a selective justice system; and a malleable legislature. On the other side is Arroyo and her court of sycophants: a cheating, lying, oppressive, deceitful band of tyrants intimidating and cowing into submission those who dare to expose the rotten core of the presidency.

The military and the police exercise tyranny whenever they use overwhelming force against people whose only crime is their exercise of the right to free speech and assembly in the search for truth. The justice system exerts tyranny over the rights of citizens whenever it dispenses selective justice according to the bidding of the appointing power. The legislature commits a tyrannical act whenever it rubberstamps with validity the action of the president and makes a mockery of the rule of law.

Put into this mix the tyranny of the yellow-and-blue media every time they praise and window-dress the truth and inflict lies on the people.

By now, all these should sound strangely familiar, like a nightmarish flashback. A repetitive pattern has been constantly before the nation whenever a terrible event occurs that is due to governmental incompetence, arrogance and abuse. Arroyo and her defensors offer misleading utterances to excuse her as well as themselves. And reinforcing their self-serving statements is a chorus of outraged admonishments from the paid hacks against any dissent or criticism.

Hasn’t Arroyo ever read Machiavelli? That guy was ever so right. He wrote that a ruler must be discreet enough to know how to avoid the infamy of greed, cruelty, faithlessness, haughtiness - vices that would deprive him of his government. So look at what Arroyo has been doing: she is indulging in recklessness, unable to restrain herself from indulging in these vices that will eventually lead to her ruin.

On second thought, I think Arroyo has read Machiavelli selectively. Especially that part about being feared or loved, which says: since love and fear can hardly exist together, it is much safer to be feared than to be loved. So this is the Machiavellian streak in Arroyo every time we hear her say over and over again that she is not in a popularity contest, and that she does not expect to be loved. Ergo, she wants to be feared, the better to intimidate the nation with her tyrannical powers.

If Arroyo must be a tyrant, she should listen to Machiavelli, and listen well: she should inspire fear in such a fashion that if she cannot win the love of the population, she must at least escape their hatred. On a clear day, she should try going to the market, without her usual retinue of paid hacks and obsequious factotums, and she will learn from each and every vendor how much they hate her; and from those trying to stretch their weekly budget to buy the basic necessities, how miserable she has made their already impoverished lives.

The problem with Arroyo is that there is no one who fears her anymore, for they know she is merely ruling on borrowed time, without any visible support from the people, save for the few police and the military now propping her up. And neither does anyone love her for her cruelty. Everyone hates her. She is neither feared nor loved. She is hated.

She who has no qualms in violently hosing down septuagenarians holding a religious procession. She who gives out orders to break up an assembly of peasants out to air out their grievances against her cruel regime. She who inflicts on the nation taxes that give her more tyrannical powers to suppress people’s rights. She that revels in the poverty of the people she rules. She that allows her minions to steal. She that cheats. She that steals. She that lies.

We are likely to face still more fearsome manifestations of tyranny in the days to come. The governing style and habitual dishonesty of the Arroyo administration represent a severe danger to our well-being. Nobody should be afraid to say so - and to say it, and act on it right now as a gift to ourselves this coming Christmas.

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